Catfish (2010)

Nev, a New York photographer, strikes up an online friendship with Abby, an 8-year-old painter in Michigan who adapted one of his photographs. Two budding filmmakers (one is Nev's brother) see the documentary potential in the relationship and decide to see where it goes. Soon Nev has exchanged facebook messages, phone calls, packages and texts galore with the family and actually embarks on a long-distance never-met-her romantic relationship with Abby's older sister Megan.

Enough little inconsistencies start to build up that the documentary trio begin to wonder what's actually real, e.g. Nev can't ever speak directly to Abby, songs that Megan records and sends to Nev turn out to be YouTube rips that are easily discoverable, and Abby's first gallery show can't be found listed anywhere online. So they decide on a surprise visit to the family.

The movie was a bit spoiled for me as the DirecTV info blurb contained the phrase "supposedly 8-year-old girl" causing me to be skeptical throughout. Heck, I'm still kind of unsure about the whole thing even with what looks like proof that it really happened. It's definitely fascinating and cautionary -- another reminder (a la Trust) that everything's suspect online -- but it's also somehow exploitive, especially when considering the "innocents" in the family. Not everyone there could have agreed to being in the doc.

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